Sanitary engineer with base in Brazil and Peru, doing consultancy in other countries of LA

Posts: 305

Likes received: 140

Karma: 18

Please log in to adjust karma points of other users

Dear colleagues,
I really got annoyed about the sequence "New Waste Water Treatment Module".
I think this kind of post should not be allowed.
If this example takes room, we will have more of this kind of "information".
I would be more open if the presentation were more technical and less advertisement.
So what makes the difference between information and advertisement?
a) the way of presentation of information. They often used "competitor" in the presentation...what is it, activated sludge, MBBR, MBR, Trickling filter, lagoon whatever.... all of these are very different with different characteristics...to talk of "competitor" means clearly "i´m selling" but SUSANA is not a selling website.
b) not giving scientific data for assumptions.
c) holding back information.
I come across this kind of advertisement of wonder solutions almost every day... I´m tired of that and appreciated that SUSANA was free of that.

Just to put it in the category "offering products" just does not help. Normally the category is not very much visible.

I totally share your concern. This is a very important issue. We as the moderators (mainly me and Trevor) are continually looking out for spam and plain advertising and delete it as soon as we spot it.

Occasionally, the advertising is done in a borderline fashion. After all, some companies may have something interesting to sell and if it is presented in a neutral way, then I think it can be OK for a company to tell us about their product on this forum. After all, we do want the private sector to be engaging with us. Prime example is Emmanuel Morin from Ecodomeo or Wolfgang Berger from Berger Biotechnik; they engage with us in interesting and in-depth postings, and the fact that they also sell composting toilets is then interesting and nothing wrong with it at all.

The postings from Jim Medall from ITGreenergy are in my opinion borderline or mostly likely even too far in the advertising direction. I have e-mailed him twice already to tell him to take off his sales hat and just to tell us more about the process and about his actual experiences with the process. He has promised to do so! (at least he responded, others just ignore such a warning message)

It is interesting though that several members of the forum have asked him for more information so there does seem to be an interest there. I do not like it if he then writes "if you want to know more, please e-mail me". That defeats the purpose of this open forum. The information should normally be shared and discussed here in the open.

I would say, let's give him another chance and see how things develop. But in general I agree with you, we do not want plain advertising here - as clearly stated in the forum rules (see tab at the top of each page if anyone is wondering about the forum rules: forum.susana.org/forum/rules).

Jim, if you read this, please abide by the rules and speak to us like a colleague would and not like someone who wants to sell something and says any other process is worthless. Thanks a lot! (double check in the rules if you are not so sure)

I fully agree with Christoph and Elisabeth views. I'm also a bit uncomfortable about that module post. This forum is for open technical discussions and not for selling a product.
Chris, I think, you must put your foot down - no more advertising and selling; only technical discussions to disseminate knowledge on sanitation.

I just want to say a little word for the producers of waterless systems or sustainable systems.
I am manufacturing waterless toilets. If I sell products and earn money and I can live. If I do not sell, I am going to disappear. It is true for all producing structure.
When we say UDDT, we do advertising for a concept, when we speak about a brand, we do advertising for a company. Is it really different ? Perhaps but not sure on the scientific point of view.
If someone produce a toilet that can solve a problem in specific project, it is very nice and it is a success. But how can we know all the different toilets existing on the market to find the right choice ?
My suggestion is that we can think about an information once a year for example on all the different producers in the world. It is clearly advertising and everyone can see it or not. Out of that information, no advertising is acceptable.
Perhaps it is done yet and I do not know it.
Do not think the producers are always "bad people" that just want to sell their products.
We are just human beings.

Sanitary engineer with base in Brazil and Peru, doing consultancy in other countries of LA

Posts: 305

Likes received: 140

Karma: 18

Please log in to adjust karma points of other users

Hi Emmanuel,

from your posting I understood that you perhaps misunderstood my posting.
I am a producer myself and I do know perfectly the need for advertisement
I´m not even against advertisement in this space if somebody puts out..
a) My product does such thing. it has those characteristics, it serves for purpose 1,2,3.
b) When comparing to other products ...making clear to what product and not generalized
c) When having results that are unusually good or cheap or magnificent, I think they should be explained or supported by research papers.

I think you are a perfect example. The way you advertise.... you contribute, you let me gain knowledge.... you give room to think about the solution, it is not just a black box.

Those were my aspects, nothing from a to c were is present in the post I mentioned.